About

The criteria are based on discussions at the International Adenovirus Meeting (Dobogókő, Hungary; 26-30 April, 2009) and the NIH Human Adenovirus Working Group Workshop (Bethesda, MD.  USA; 3 February 2011), which are summarized in a “Letter to the Editor“.

Committee Members:

Evidence and the process for obtaining new HAdV type numbers can be found here.

Names, i.e., human adenovirus “type”,  are meant for clarity and reference in regards to a unique organism.  A unique identifier, i.e., type, allows multiple investigators to investigate and refer to the same organism without confusion.  As the same organism or a close variant may circulate in different geographic locations and at different times, it may be isolated and characterized “for the first time” simultaneously by multiple groups.  This poses a problem in that GenBank may assign different names to the same organism without knowledge of the adenviruses.  A solution to this problem is a rapid, non-biased and non-peer review of the evidence with a recommendation to the NCBI for an assignment of a type number, prior to journal review.  This will avoid duplication of names and conflicts in the literature that have happened in the past.

All type submissions will be forwarded to the Working Group from NCBI without any author identifying information to insure anonymity of submitter.

Tools that will be available on this website include a genotyper that will allow a preliminary genotype to be determined upon the entry of the genome sequence.  This will be in accordance with similar tools being developed by other virus research groups.

For convenience, a “serotyping” or molecular typing tool is available, displaying all potential types corresponding to the query serotype entered by a user.

These tools will allow for typing methodologies that can be done quickly in any laboratory, with PCR and DNA sequencing, and can be validated by any other laboratory without the need for special and/or limited reagents.

There is no perfect transition from “sero-” to “genotyping” so this site serves a critical role to bridge the 21st century research with the past, and to enable cooperation and research.  It is only as useful as the adenovirus research community wants it to be.  The community is invited to participate to make this a useful resource.